Earl Smith

Earl Smith – Dean of the College Emeritus, Colby College. Click to enlarge

At the September Community Voices, Earl and Amy will be discussing his current publication “Head of Falls”, a book of historical fiction about a teenage Lebanese girl growing up on the riverfront in 1950s Waterville.

Earl Smith grew up on Roosevelt Avenue with his father, who operated a grain store on North Street, and his mother, a registered nurse who worked at Seton Hospital, and two brothers. Smith got a journalism degree from University of Maine, in Orono, and was offered a night job at the Sentinel, putting together the front page for $5,000 a year. At the same time, Colby offered him a day job in the public affairs office for the same pay. By that time he was married, had a child and another on the way, so he chose the day job at Colby. He worked there 40 years, first as news assistant, photographer and then director of student activities in the ’60s, associate dean of students, dean of students and then dean of the college. He retired in 2004 and is still the college historian.

Smith and his wife, Barbara, have three children, Kelly, Jeffrey and Michael. Now living in Belgrade Lakes, Smith has published four other books: “Mayflower Hill: A History of Colby College,” “With the Help of Friends: A History of the Colby Art Museum,” “The Dam Committee” and “More Dam Trouble.”